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| The Independent Traveler Declares Independence |
| Viet Nam, Then and Now |
| The First Hit's Always Free |
| The Wright Air Development Center Collection |
| Eudora 5.1 Released |
| Curl |
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BREAKING SURF
Online Science Publishing: Publish Free or Perish
Last fall, a group of prominent scientists called for a boycott of any scientific journals which fail to release their papers to a free public online archive within a few months of publication. The idea has since gained serious momentum and by now over 15,000 scientists worldwide have signed on to strike. The point of the strike, scheduled for later this year, is to promote the open exchange of scientific results, which many scientists feel is impaired by the commerce-driven policies of prestigious paper journals. Scientific American (SciAm) summarizes the issue, which bears on the very foundations of modern scientific practice. This is an upheaval in the making of great importance to the future of scientific information sharing and dissemination. Debate hotly rages on the Web sites of the preeminent science journals Nature and Science with more material than we can possibly cover.Boycott: http://www.publiclibraryofscience.org/
SciAm: http://www.scientificamerican.com/explorations/2001/042301publish/
Nature: http://www.nature.com/nature/debates/e-access/
Science: http://www.sciencemag.org/feature/data/hottopics/plsdebate.shtml
Described as hellishly complex by the vice-president of the company that built it and as a joy to operate and work with by the International Space Station (ISS) flight engineer, the 1.6-tonne, 17-metre-long Canadian robotic arm has been hooked up to the space station and is now operational. The Canadarm2 is capable of moving large and cumbersome objects, like satellites and cargo modules, to within a fraction of an inch of their destinations. The arm can even move itself around the outside of the ISS. Its delicate sense of touch and 30 computers spread throughout the arm itself let the arm safely manipulate fragile cargo. The arm is the first of three plug-and-play Mobile Servicing System (MSS) components to be added over the next two years, the others being a Mobile Servicer Base System (a work platform) and the Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator (an extension to the arm that will add even more refined control). A team of over 200 engineers and 50 sub-contracted companies across Canada took 15 years to design and build the Canadarm2. Lou Dobbs's Space.com (still going strong) has live spacewalk coverage.
MSS builders: http://www.mdrobotics.ca/mssframe.htm
ISS: http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/station/
Space.com: http://www.space.com/
The FBI couldn't get the Russian government to help gather evidence on two of that country's crackers who have been breaking into commercial and banking systems in the US. So the feds decided that they would have to do some cracking of their own. After a lengthy investigation, two Russian 20-something crackers were identified as the culprits in a number of extortion and break-in attempts in the US. Typically, the crackers would break into a system and either steal credit card numbers or offer to show the victims how they did it in return for a fee. The FBI lured them to the US with promises of job offers then sat them down in front of a computer and asked to see how good they were. With a keystroke sniffer running on the computers, the FBI captured the crackers' passwords to their Russian home base machine. The feds arrested the Russians and downloaded evidence from the computer in Russia. Only later did the FBI obtain a search warrant. MSNBC has the story of what appears to be the first law enforcement foreign computer break-in in US legal history.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/563379.asp
Over the last few years, the Honeynet Project has been exploring the tools and techniques of crackers by dangling tempting targets of attack and analyzing the attacks when they occur. This well written article aims "to discuss what a Honeynet is, its value to the security community, how it works, and the risks/issues involved". The article reflects the sophistication of this kind of research by drawing a distinction between the more familiar honeypot, a single system used to create a caged environment for intruders, and the honeynet, a sophisticated network of fully functional production systems. The paper even addresses the moral issues of running a honeynet with regard to privacy and entrapment. All in all, it's a thorough and valuable overview of a sophisticated security research method.
http://www2.linuxsecurity.com/feature_stories/feature_story-84.html
Judge Snuffs McVeigh Execution Webcast
A federal judge has denied requests by two companies to broadcast over the Internet the planned May 16 execution of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. Entertainment Network and Liveontheweb wanted to distribute the state execution on a pay-per-view basis. Entertainment Network plans to appeal, claiming their First Amendment rights to free speech are being violated. Legal experts don't rate its chance of success too high. Witnessing the execution in person, which the law allows, is one thing, transmitting the action to others is another, although closed circuit transmission to members of victims families who can't be present is being arranged. Is there really a market for this kind of grisly voyeuristic thing? Long ago, public executions were a big draw in England, but we thought that time had passed.http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-5663241.html
Black & White and It's Alright
The PC game Black & White, developed by Lionhead Studios and published by Electronic Arts, left PC gamers impatiently waiting for three years. Finally released, the game seems to have satisfied most critical gamers (is there any other kind?) with a plot that requires them to play god with a tiny village in a highly interactive world with lush graphics and deep, complicated artificial intelligence. The game oddly but successfully combines strategy, role-playing, and open-ended play. There is no linear story line or goal; it's just you and your village, and how you get your villagers to worship you is your own business. You interact with villagers and the environment through an avatar, whom you teach to perform miracles or mete out the - well, the wrath of god. We've spent many hours with Black & White, which has surprised us many times with the complexity and flexibility it displays. Feed has a good article and interview with the AI developer, and other players relate their experiences in reviews and message boards at the other links below.Feed: http://www.feedmag.com/templates/default.php3?a_id=1694
GameSpot: http://gamespot.com/gamespot/stories/reviews/0,10867,2702884,00.html
Boards: http://boards.bwgame.com/index.php
Forum: http://www.forumplanet.com/planetblackandwhite/
RIAA Threatens SDMI Challenge Researchers
Last year, the Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI) consortium challenged hackers to break a variety of music copy-protection technologies. A group of academic researchers took on the challenge, but they did so independently and without agreeing to the rules of the contest, which included restrictions on publishing results. The academic group did break four of six SDMI protection schemes, and some of its researchers scheduled a presentation at the Fourth International Information Hiding Workshop to explain how they did it. Now, SDMI lawyers have threatened the research group with legal recourse if they reveal the results of their research. The lawyers point out that the broken technologies are already in use in commercial products, and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act makes it illegal to reveal decryption methods (this provision is being challenged in court). The point is, in fact, moot - both the threat letter and the paper detailing how to break the protections are already online at Cryptome. CNet has moreSDMI Challenge: http://www.sdmi.org/pr/OL_Sept_6_2000.htm
Cryptome: http://cryptome.org/sdmi-attack.htm
CNet: http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-5699242.html
Copyright Vigilantes Building a Scaffold for Gnutella
With Napster writhing like a rogue cow caught and hog-tied with some entertainment mogul's lasso, copyright protection vigilantes have set their sights on other copyright rustlers. The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), fresh from tirelessly riding down and stringing up Scour, iCraveTV.com, and RecordTV.com, has now set its crosshairs on Gnutella. So far, the MPAA hasn't dared send its legal posse after individuals, but it has aimed warning shots at ISPs and universities, whose help it needs to track down Gnutella users. ZDNet reports that Excite@Home, for one, has accepted the deputy's badge and warned some of its customers to clean up their act or get out of town. We wonder whether some sarsaparilla swiller isn't going to stride into the saloon, mosey up to the bar and start asking tough questions about just how the boys in the fancy leathers, polished boots, and spurs did their investigatin'. At any rate, we suspect the vigilantes are in for quite a ride.http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,5081293,00.html
Using Freenet to Defeat Closed Software
AOL has recently begun using a technical method to prevent clone clients from connecting with its AIM messaging client. They cleverly do this by having the messaging server query the client for a checksum, and if the checksum is not that of a valid AIM executable, the client connection is dropped. Eric Ries gave this some thought, and has proposed how an anonymous network like Freenet can be used to defeat this type of protection. His article on NewsForge discusses the history of the problem, how hackers have suggested it be addressed, and lays out his proposal to use Freenet essentially as a distributed checksum server. While the proposed method is applicable to the AIM situation, what's important is that this general mechanism can be used to defeat any software which tries to resist cloning by way of checksums. Good reading for the technically inclined.Article: http://www.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=01/04/16/1931237&mode=thread
Freenet: http://freenet.sourceforge.net/
Two notable pieces provide an overview of the current American legal situation regarding spam. First is a debate on how to handle the default privacy settings for consumers within the direct marketing industry. The Internet Law Journal looks at the recent push by direct marketers to influence privacy legislation to make the opt-out option the default. The article "Industry Wants to Opt Out of 'Opt-In'" looks in detail at the issue, both in a historical context and in view of current practices. In a second piece titled "Technical and Legal Approaches to Unsolicited Electronic Mail", David Sorkin gives a thoughtful overview of how spam can be fought both legally and - at a very high level - technically. Both articles are of interest not only to spam warriors, but also to legal professionals who will likely need to deal with the ever-growing problem.
Opt Out: http://www.tilj.com/content/ecomarticle04140102.htm
David: http://www.spamlaws.com/articles/usf.html
You're mad as hell and you're not going to take it anymore. Ellen Spertus was, if not mad, miffed that the recently dearly departed Kozmo had specifically sent e-mail to people like herself who had opted out of receiving e-mail. When she contacted the company, customer service confirmed that Kozmo was sending unsolicited e-mail to people on its opt-out list. She took Kozmo to court and won $50 plus $27.50 in court costs. Ellen has posted an interesting account on her Web site along with the judgment. As Ellen was a customer, we hope the judgment wasn't the straw that broke the Kozmo camel's back.
http://www.spertus.com/ellen/Kozmo/kozmo.html
Is it spam or isn't it? MonsterHut claims its bulk e-mailing is legit and within the bounds of its contract with its ISP, PaeTEc Communications, but the ISP thinks otherwise - and their lawyers are tussling. In March, a New York judge issued a restraining order against PaeTEc that allowed MonsterHut to go ahead with its mailings. That's a fine legal resolution, albeit a temporary one, but morally, who's right and who's wrong here? We call all unwanted stuff flooding our inboxes "spam" but the law doesn't quite see it that way. If an e-mail comes from a legitimate address, has a relevant header, and has a functional opt-out mechanism, it is not spam as defined by most legislation. Many ISPs (who pay for bandwidth, it should be noted) have a somewhat more narrow view. Verio, whose services PaeTEc resells, accuses its customer PaeTEc of letting MonsterHut operate under a so-called pink contract, which money-hungry firms use to sidestep normal acceptable-use requirements. There's never a dull day in the life of the online entrepreneur. Read all about it in CNet.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-5668645.html
Multilingual Domain Names, Sort of
The clamoring global horde that wants domain names in languages other than English is finally seeing signs of life in the Internet organizations that manage such things. Verisign, the keeper of .com, .net, and .org top-level domains has added Hebrew, Arabic, and Thai characters to a growing list of characters and languages now allowed as part of an experimental multilingual domain name test bed. It's a Unicode mapping system like that patented by Walid (see NSD 7.09). The action comes well in advance of the establishment of official standards by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which hopes to finish a technical study on the subject by June, but it is just a test. Meanwhile, the Internet Engineering Task Force is still muttering around the water cooler over that Walid patent. CNet reports the story and Verisign has a good set of documents, summaries, precautions, and details at its Web site.Verisign: http://www.verisign-grs.com/multilingual/multilingual.html
CNet: http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-5655133.html
ONLINE CULTURE
Dotcom Crash Refugees Turn to Porn
What do you do when you get laid off from your cushy dotcom job? You go into the porn industry. At least you do in the LA area, where the recession-proof porn business is hiring Web, programming, and graphic professionals who used to suckle at the online teat of the film industry. An LA Times article quotes porn industry sources who say that while last year they could not get decent technical employees, today they are seeing plenty of high-quality resumes. The article indicates that there is little stigma in working in porn among today's younger workers since porn is regarded as casual entertainment on many college campuses. Will the Internet be overwhelmed by a new wave of porn as all those laid off dotcom workers hit the industry? Or will any such wave be a mere unnoticed ripple given the ocean of porn already out there?http://www.latimes.com/news/asection/20010423/t000034314.html
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Bridget Jones's Diary
Body of Secrets: Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency:
Cryptography in C and C++
Free Agent Nation: How America's New Independent Workers Are
Transforming the Way We LiveSURFING SITES
Star Wars by Star Trek by Something Furry
Cross Star Wars with Star Trek with something furry tossed in, slice it and dice it into compact MPEG snippets so that the various parts can be easily transported across even the slowest of dial-up connections, and you have Trek Wars: The Furry Conflict. We found ourselves wishing there was more to this, but there isn't. Yet. They're just into the first chapters of Episode One, and they have dozens of parts available for audition. This could be your big break: if your voice works, you could be in! This is audio-drama, after all - they don't care what you look like. Imagine your voice worked into the cool sound effects and the storyline these folks provide. You can read that storyline up through Chapter Twenty, by the way. Even comment on it, if you'd like. You're sure to find parts in the script that you can identify with. We even found a part that reminded us of NSD: "Arthur lunged at him. 'Blast it if I'll let you off this ship alive, traitor!'" We always cringe when he starts talking that way.http://www.furryconflict.com/
Few messages can frustrate like "404 Not Found", the impersonal automated notification from Web servers that either you goofed or someone's screwed (actually, that it can't find the Web page you're looking for). Many sites customize their 404 messages. You'll find many of these sorry greetings through 404 Research Lab, a neat portal that categorizes these messages under a variety of subjective headings. Each category links to 50 or 60 sites with 404 messages designed by people dissatisfied with their server's default messages. There's some pretty weird stuff here, along with tips on what to do when you get 404'd and how you, too, can 404. We like this site's own 404 message, a takeoff on a famous poem by Edgar Allen Poe. To view it, key in a letter after the URL below and go there.
http://www.plinko.net/404/
Tomandandy's Dandy Waste of Time
If you're looking to lose a few minutes of your allotted lifespan without wasting brain cells in the process, we suggest checking in here. People like us find this an interesting diversion. Without appearing overly invasive, Tomandandy somehow manage to tape your eyelids open and grab your ears with a dual set of vise grips. This is bandwidth-intensive stuff, so we'd not recommend sampling it on your grandma's 14.4-kbps connection. Yeah, she paid good money for that modem and it still works fine after all these years, yadda, yadda, yadda. Trust us: broadband is better. And we're betting the marketing types among us will look, listen, and prick up their ears. Not that it takes much to prick up their ears - aren't they all Romulan?http://www.tomandandy.com/
There was a time in America, not all that long ago, when 17-year-olds were considered children. Despite the lack of television and other basic necessities, they didn't go to school armed to the teeth. They were kids, and they did things like listen to the radio, maybe take in a Technicolor movie, and keep diaries. We touched on this site a few years ago in NSD 2.39, but it's now a domain of its own and the Pearl Harbor movie is only a month away, so we thought an update would be appropriate. Ginger's Diary was written by an American mainland girl, apparently originally hailing from the Midwest, who found herself in the midst of the Pearl Harbor bombing runs. The published excerpt covers a few days before the bombing, the time during the bombing, and a few days after the disaster. It comes complete with black-and-white photos, and it provides a really swell glimpse of life at ground zero during this historic event. Pop some corn, pop a Technicolor Errol Flynn movie into the DVD, and just get into the mindset.
Ginger: http://www.gingersdiary.com/
Movie: http://studio.go.com/movies/pearlharbor/
Speechwriters are well aware of the punch of quotations - there's nothing like sarcasm or wit, an ancient zinger or modern barb to give point and pathos to a public speaker. If you're one of the many who have groped for something memorable to say at an opportune moment, or if your class report needs a kickstart, the Quotations and Sayings Database may come in handy. Searching this hodgepodge portal leaves something to be desired, although it will help you find quotations on other sites such as Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, Creative Quotations, and Bibliomania.com. To get a feel for this site, your best first step may be to jump into the quotes organized by subject or the Proverbs and Sayings page. As Hank Aaron said, "It took me 17 years to get 3,000 hits, but I did it in one afternoon on the golf course." Or, to repeat a Latin proverb, "Fear not a jest. If one throws salt at you, you will not be harmed unless you have sore places." Or, as a Turkish proverb has it, "A heart in love with beauty never grows old." Or - well, you get the idea. We hope.
http://www.quotesandsayings.com/
Calendar Zone will keep you up to date with celestial, cultural, historic, and other types of calendars. Most parents can feel safe letting their kids browse the various categories in this gateway. (We found only a couple of mildly suggestive photos - bathing beauties - in the Women's Calendars collection of links. You're likely to find more cheesecake at bookstores.) Astronomy and astrology calendars abound. The Daily Calendars collection links to three of our reviewer's preferred sites: 440 International Those Were the Days, the History Channel, and Today's Movie History. Calendar Zone may be a site to explore best on rainy days when the here and now seems a bit of a drag.
http://www.calendarzone.com/
Pity poor Clippy, the animated Microsoft paper clip that was supposed to make Office applications fun and easy to use. Many found Clippy an overly cute, annoying waste of time. Now, we're told, it's out of work. Office XP, Microsoft's new productivity suite, is supposed to obviate any need for animated office assistants. There's a Flash promo of XP with the voice of Gilbert Gottfried as hapless Clippy. Should you care, you can take the "Clippy Poll" to vote on its fate. Call it marketing in reverse: bashing your own product with self-deprecating humor may be politically correct, but it's a side of Microsoft that may surprise some. Microsoft survived Microsoft Bob. With cousin Clippy in the circular bin, and the XP acronym still a mystery, perhaps we can look forward to more suite ideas that won't make it. By the way, the trial version of Office XP ships April 30.
http://www.officeclippy.com/
Ask a question here, as if you were talking to a support technician. FreeAnswers.com offers an alternate approach to dealing with a frustrating computer problem. Phrase your question in plain English, and you'll read answers from comprehensive knowledge bases maintained by vendors like Microsoft, Adobe, Intuit, and Autodesk. Its natural-language interface turns your simple words into a powerful search key that's then fed into the larger information databases. The outcome is a set of diverse links about your topic and anything remotely similar. Some of the more common software packages are covered in those knowledge bases, helping you get past that silly problem and get on with your work. If there's any criticism at all of an otherwise very useful resource, it's that anything specific to Macs or Linux is noticeably absent. But maybe, just maybe - nah, we won't say it.
http://www.freeanswers.com/ask2.asp
ONLINE TRAVEL
Weird little place, this. A Flash-enabled virtual museum. Canadian, of course, so look for a lot of extraneous U's in there. You know the drill: simple words, such as "color" simply must contain an added "u" to make it "colour" - all the more confusing for the folks down south. If you speak non-Canadian French, there may be similar issues in store, as the place features, in uniquely Canadian style, a French gateway and an English gateway to admission. Pick your poison. The site contains some cool landscape artwork, and some really interesting works on black Loyalists. Add in some fun stuff like the games, and it seems there's something for everyone. Of course, no Canadian site would really be complete without a bit about Champlain for the history, and hockey for the insanity. Not too surprising, the hockey thing - Canadians seem fiercely loyal to their skaters. With good reason, as there isn't a whole lot left to do up there, once winter sets in. Trust us, we know....http://www.virtualmuseum.ca/
The Independent Traveler Declares Independence
What do Motley Fool, the Knot, and the Independent Traveler have in common? They're all forums begun on AOL which blossomed into Web ventures - at least, the Independent Traveler hopes to be in such company now that it has taken that long-awaited step to to its own server. Just as everyone else in the dotcom world is jumping ship, Independent Traveler is taking off, ten years after its online debut. Its Bargain Box feature, a long-time AOL favorite, is newly expanded on the site and the Resource Center has the unique advantage of already amassing ten years of online content before its Web launch. If you're an inveterate traveler or just a newbie in need of destination advice, turn to Independent Traveler before you book that next vacation.http://www.independenttraveler.com/
If you're a USA baby boomer, just this country's name is likely set off a visceral reaction. Sorry about that. Thailand is the only near-southeast Asian country to have an unblemished history of driving out foreign invaders. Viet Nam, which borders the Gulf of Tonkin, the South China Sea, and China itself, has been far less successful. Here's a view from someone who grew up there. It's not a pretty story, but where else but the Web to tell it?
http://www.geocities.com/cn_le/vietnam.html
FLOTSAM & JETSAM
Like any good dealer, WestCiv Webware provides hits - in this case, free, self-paced Web development courses - in installments. When developers need the fix more frequently or more quickly, they can invest in the entire course. We were relieved to find out their House of Style involves CSS and not capri pants.http://www.westciv.com/courses/free/
The Wright Air Development Center Collection
The opening page is annoying. Click on the link then go get a cup of coffee or whatever. When you get back, you'll find that the site's about done trying to impress you, and actually has a pile of interesting stuff to paw through. Still into that Roswell conspiracy? They got you covered on that, and then some.http://www.gl.iit.edu/wadc/
SOFTWARE
The latest version of the popular and highly recommended e-mail client comes with the usual slew of feature enhancements. The most notable new feature is support for SSL (Secure Socket Layer). This is basically a protocol for encrypting your communication with the mail server, thus making it difficult for third parties to intercept your e-mail. The program is designed for people who get lots of e-mail and need its powerful sorting and reporting features. Eudora is available in three modes: free with embedded advertising, an advertising free version for $40 (a great bargain), and a Light version with a reduced feature set.http://www.eudora.com/
Tim Berners-Lee, widely credited with inventing the Web browser, is now associated with the design of a new Web programming language called Curl. The rationale for Curl is almost exactly the same as that for Java, the desire to offload processing of rich media content from webservers to the client machines. Architecturally, it's essentially a just-in-time compiler sitting as a plug-in within the browser. The obvious question is whether the Web needs yet another programming language, especially given the failure of Java to save the world. And do we really need yet another convention for entering comments in code? Curl may turn out to be just a historical curiosity despite backing from some big names in the computer science community, but is certainly of at least academic interest to online professionals.
http://www.curl.com/